ft 

ku. 

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THE  NEW  (GERMAN)  TESTAMENT 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN) 
TESTAMENT 

SOME  TEXTS  AND  A  COMMENTARY 


BY 
ANTHONY  HOPE  HAWKINS 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK  1915 


COPYRIGHT,  I9IS. 

BY  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 

COPYRIGHT,  1914,  BY  STAR  COMPANY 

COPYRIGHT,  1914,  BY  THB  TRIBUNE  ASSOCIATION 


CONTENTS 

I 

THE  BLESSINGS  OF—  WAR 


n 

GREAT  BRITAIN'S  BLUNDER    ......      21 

in 

PAPER  BULWARKS  ........       39 

IV 
EMPIRE—  AND  LIBERTY?  ......        55 


2039737 


THE   NEW 
(GERMAN)   TESTAMENT 

I 

THE  BLESSINGS   OF— WAR 

WE  have  all  been  on  the  wrong  tack — 
we,  the  nations,  great  and  small — who 
have  counted  ourselves  civilized  and  Christian ; 
the  great  and  populous  nations  who  have 
worked  for  peace  and  often  imposed  it  by  diplo- 
macy; the  numerically  weak  nations  who  have 
accepted  peace  as  a  permanent  and  honorable 
condition  of  their  independent  life. 

Lamentably  wrong  have  our  statesmen  been, 
with  their  efforts  after  peace,  their  Hague 
Conferences,  Arbitration  Treaties,  Arbitration 
Commissions,  prohibition  of  armaments  on  the 
Great  Lakes  of  North  America,  and  so  forth. 
Lamentably  wrong  our  Churches,  with  their 
7 


THE   NEW   (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

ministers  preaching  peace  and  praying  for  it, 
with  their  congregations  in  their  millions 
breathing  the  same  prayer  to  the  Throne  of 
God.  And  how  pitiable  to  think  that  we  have 
deluded  even  our  little  children  into  lisping 
prayers  for  peace  and  into  conceiving  of  the 
august  and  gracious  figure  of  the  Founder  of 
their  religion  as  the  Prince  of  Peace  I 

We  have  indeed  recognized  that  peace  is  not 
to  be  purchased  at  any  and  every  price,  that 
we  must  fight  in  the  cause  of  national  inde- 
pendence, or  vital  interest,  or  dear  honor,  go- 
ing indeed  so  far  as  sometimes  to  fight  merely 
because  we  promised  to — a  quixotic  proceeding 
in  the  sincerity  of  which  it  is  well-nigh  impos- 
sible to  believe !  But  we  have  been  at  a  wrong 
angle  of  vision  all  the  same.  We  thought  we 
were  accepting  a  mighty  evil  to  escape  from  a 
mightier;  we  have  tried  to  escape  these  might- 
ier evils  by  other  means.  We  have  dared  to 
dream  of  the  time  when  the  sense  of  right,  jus- 
tice, and  human  comradeship  would  be  our 
shield  and  buckler,  and  that  the  last  remedy 
of  war  would  be  no  more  needed.  In  this 
8 


THE   BLESSINGS    OF— WAR 

dream  we  may  have  accused  ourselves,  in  de- 
spondent hours,  of  being  visionary  and  Uto- 
pian. We  were,  in  fact,  something  much  worse 
than  that,  as  will  speedily  appear. 

Germany  knows  better  about  all  this;  at 
least,  Prussia  does ;  or,  at  all  events,  the  Prus- 
sian generals  do — witness  General  von  Bern- 
hardi,  whose  book,  "Germany  and  the  Next 
War,"  is  now  enjoying  a  prominence  which 
must  be  counted  well  deserved.  The  book, 
written  some  three  years  ago,  is  primarily 
an  exhortation  to  the  German  nation; 
but  other  nations  may  naturally  take  an  in- 
terest in  it  at  the  present  time.  Unless 
his  translator  (on  whom  my  ignorance  of  Ger- 
man compels  me  to  rely)  wrongs  him,  the  Gen- 
eral, though  not  a  vivacious  writer,  is  admir- 
ably lucid,  and  can  say  what  he  means  as  well 
as  anybody.  The  Germans,  he  says  in  his  In- 
troduction, "have  to-day  become  a  peace-loving 
— an  almost  too  peace-loving — nation."  (I  do 
not  know  how  far  this  reproach  is  just ;  but,  if 
it  is,  one  may  be  allowed  to  be  sorry  for  them 
just  now.)  "We  are  accustomed,"  he  remarks 


THE   NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

regretfully,  "to  regard  war  as  a  curse,  and  re- 
fuse to  recognize  it  as  the  greatest  factor  in 
the  furtherance  of  culture  and  power." 

Again :  "I  must  first  of  all  examine  the  as- 
pirations for  peace  which  seem  to  dominate 
our  age,  and  threaten  to  poison  the  soul  of 
the  German  people,  according  to  their  true 
moral  significance. ' '  Poison !  A  strong  word ! 
"We  begin  to  see  how  wrong  we  have  been  in  our 
notions — instilling  this  "poison"  of  a  love  of 
peace  into  the  veins  even  of  our  children ! 

"I  must  try  to  prove  that  war  is  not  merely 
a  necessary  element  in  the  life  of  nations,  but 
an  indispensable  factor  of  culture,  in  which 
a  true  civilized  nation  finds  the  highest  expres- 
sion of  strength  and  vitality."  That  we  took 
altogether  too  low  a  view  of  war  is  obvious. 
We  have  done  nothing  like  justice  to  it.  It  is 
not  a  desperate  remedy:  it  is  an  uncommonly 
good  thing  in  itself. 

In  fact,  it  is  so  good  a  thing  that  people  who1 

profess  to  hate  it  are  mostly  just  humbugging. 

"Pacific  ideals,  to  be  sure,  are  seldom  the  real 

motive  of  their  action.    They  usually  employ 

10 


THE    BLESSINGS   OF— WAR 

the  need  of  peace  as  a  cloak  under  which  to 
promote  their  own  political  aims.  This  was 
the  real  position  of  affairs  at  the  Hague  Con- 
ference, and  this  is  also  the  meaning  of  the  ac- 
tion of  the  United  States  of  America,  who  in 
recent  times  earnestly  tried  to  conclude  treaties 
for  the  establishment  of  Arbitration  Courts, 
first  and  foremost  with  England,  but  also  with 
Japan,  France,  and  Germany."  America  is 
pretty  well  shown  up — with  her  talk  about 
peace  and  brotherhood,  and  blood  being  thicker 
than  water! 

"War  is  a  biological  necessity  of  the  first 
importance,  a  regulative  element  in  the  life  of 
mankind  which  cannot  be  dispensed  with,  since 
without  it  an  unhealthy  development  will  fol- 
low, which  excludes  every  advancement  of  the 
race,  and  therefore  all  real  civilization."  And 
we  dreamed  of  abolishing  it — at  all  events,  at 
restricting  it  to  the  narrowest  limits  and  the 
most  inevitable  occasions !  Whereas  it  appears 
that,  if  we  have  not  got  a  casus  belli,  we  ought 
to  find  one  as  soon  as  possible.  So  long 
as  the  General  has  his  way,  we  may  eas- 
11 


THE   NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

ily  be  presented  with  one  without  looking 
for  it. 

But  war  is  more  than  a  biological  necessity. 
"  Might  is  at  once  the  supreme  right,  and  the 
dispute  as  to  what  is  right  is  decided  by  the 
arbitrament  of  war.  War  gives  a  biologically 
just  decision,  since  its  decisions  rest  on  the 
very  nature  of  things."  So  that  nationality, 
liberty,  aggression,  treaties  ("scraps  of  pa- 
per"), etc.,  go  for  nothing,  and  we  are  just  as 
wrong  in  considering  them  as  in  working  or 
praying  for  peace. 

War  has  done  very  well  already  in  the  Gen- 
eral's hands;  its  virtues  are  not  exhausted  yet. 
"It  is  not  only  a  biological  law  but  a  moral 
obligation  and,  as  such,  an  indispensable  fac- 
tor in  civilization." 

Now  even  we,  in  spite  of  our  mistakes,  should 
not  deny  that  war  may  be  on  occasion  a  moral 
obligation,  either  toward  ourselves  or  toward 
others.  But,  first,  there  is  a  vast  difference  be- 
tween "is"  and  "may  be."  The  latter  sug- 
gests the  contingent  and  occasional,  the  former 
the  normal  and  regular.  The  General's  point 
12 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF— WAR 

of  view  is  clear  by  his  addition — "an  indis- 
pensable factor  in  civilization. "  Indispensable 
factors  are  not  things  endured  reluctantly  and 
occasionally;  they  are  permanent  and  neces- 
sary— and  presumably  not  very  rare — features. 
Such  is  the  position  war  holds  in  the  General's 
conception  of  civilization.  He  makes  this  en- 
tirely clear  as  he  proceeds  in  a  rapturous  praise 
of  the  virtues  of  war,  fortified  by  quotations 
from  Treitschke,  Schiller,  and  Frederick  the 
Great.  He  makes  it  notably  clear  by  his  illu- 
minating observation  that  those  virtues  get 
no  fair  scope  in  "the  pitiable  existence  of  all 
small  States." 

"The  pitiable  existence  of  all  small  States!" 
We  may  suppose  that  Belgium,  the  Nether- 
lands, and  Switzerland  (to  name  no  more)  will 
see  themselves  as  they  really  are  in  the  light 
of  these  words.  Perhaps  we — and  they — may 
also  suppose  with  some  plausibility  that  the 
General,  if  he  has  his  way,  will  be  charitable 
enough  to  relieve  them  from  their  pitiable  ex- 
istence as  small  States;  he  will  put  them  out 
of  their  misery — as  small  States. 
13 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

What  will  he  do  with  them  if  he  has  his  way? 
He  does  not,  so  far  as  I  can  find,  say  explicitly 
— he  is  more  occupied  in  disposing  of  greater 
Powers — but  farther  on  in  the  book  he  remarks 
with  much  emphasis:  "In  the  future  the  im- 
portance of  Germany  will  depend  on  two 
points :  firstly,  how  many  millions  of  men  in  the 
world  speak  German;  secondly,  how  many  of 
them  are  politically  members  of  the  German 
Empire."  In  the  light  of  this,  and  in  view  of 
the  General's  undoubted  patriotism,  it  is  not 
perhaps  hard  to  conclude  how  the  pitiable  ex- 
istence of  the  small  States  is  to  be  brought 
to  a  merciful  conclusion. 

And  to  what  end  does  the  biological  neces- 
sity work,  the  biologically  just  decisions  tend? 
What  is  to  be  the  reward  of  observing  the 
moral  obligation  and  of  cherishing  and  promot- 
ing the  indispensable  factor  in  civilization? 
For  the  General  as  a  German  the  answer  is 
plain.  "Thus  alone,"  he  says,  "shall  we  dis- 
charge our  great  duties  of  the  future,  grow 
into  a  World  Power,  and  stamp  a  great  part 
of  humanity  with  the  impress  of  the  German 
14 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF— WAR 

spirit.'-'  That  is  the  answer  for  Germany — a 
vast  and  indefinite  expansion  of  the  German 
spirit,  of  the  German  culture  of  later  days 
which  has  produced  and  which  inspires  the 
General's  political  philosophy.  For  Germany 
so  far,  so  good.  We  understand  the  answer. 
It  is  frank  and  plain — and  it  does  not  take  us 
by  surprise. 

What  is  the  answer  for  other  nations! 

For  the  small  nations  we  have  seen  it  al- 
ready. They  are  to  be  stamped  with  the  im- 
press of  the  German  spirit;  their  "pitiable 
existences*'  are  to  be  ended.  We  may  borrow 
a  phrase  current  in  another  connection.  A 
steam-roller  is  to  be  passed  over  them— the 
steam-roller,  not  of  Russian  troops  but  of 
Prussian  notions;  the  steam-roller,  not  of  a 
campaign  but  of  a  conception  and  a  culture — 
the  culture  that  fosters  the  General's  philoso- 
phy and  the  Prussian  military  system;  an  end 
to  their  national  existence,  to  their  national 
ideals,  to  the  rich  diversity  of  civilization  to 
which  the  world  has  owed  so  much  and  from 
which  it  had  such  hopes  in  the  future!  No 
15 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

independent  voice  is  to  be  raised  from  the  land 
that  was  the  home  of  Ibsen,  no  independent 
dreams  of  beauty  from  the  country  that  gave 
us  Maeterlinck!  When  the  steam-roller  has 
passed  nothing  is  to  be  heard  but  the  accents 
of  the  culture  which  has  produced  the  General's 
philosophy  and  inspired  the  Prussian  military 
system. 

What  is  the  answer  for  the  great  nations? 

For  France?  But  we  may  leave  France  out. 
The  General  himself  gives  the  answer. 
"France  must  be  so  completely  crushed  that 
she  can  never  again  come  across  our  path." 
France  is  to  be  steam-rollered!  And  at  least 
a  pretty  broad  edge  of  the  machine  may  be 
expected  to  pass  over  her  Allies  also. 

But  what  is  the  answer  for  the  great  nations 
not  engaged  in  the  war?  Or  are  all  to  be 
engaged?  Is  the  whole  world  to  be  stamped 
— and  stamped  out?  Even  the  General  can 
hardly  expect  that.  Well,  then,  what  is  the 
prospect  for  these  great  nations  and  for  the 
lands  they  people  and  administer?  The  Gen- 
eral's philosophy,  though  invented  and  pat- 
16 


THE    BLESSINGS    OF— WAR 

ented  in  Germany,  can  hardly  be  limited  to 
these  regions.  If  it  be  successful,  other  nations 
will  help  themselves  to  licenses  for  its  employ- 
ment. They,  too,  will  recognize  the  biological 
law;  they,  too,  will  seek,  by  that  Might  which 
is  the  supreme  Right,  biologically  just  deci- 
sions; they  will  not  neglect  the  moral  obliga- 
tion, nor  suffer  the  indispensable  factor  in 
civilization  to  lie  idle.  They,  too,  converted  by 
the  General's  philosophy,  will  seek  war  and 
ensue  it.  Because  to  the  General's  converts 
war  is  not  a  calamity  which  must  be  faced 
sometimes — which  must  happen  sometimes — 
owing  to  human  fault  or  frailty:  it  is  a  thing 
which  ought  to  happen  normally  in  the  inter- 
ests of  a  nation's  spirit  and  culture. 

Behold,  then,  the  prospect  that  lies  before 
the  world  if  the  General 's  philosophy  triumphs 
in  the  schools,  and  the  military  system  which 
it  inspires  repeats  the  triumph  in  the  field! 
For  the  small  nations  extinction — political,  in- 
tellectual, spiritual.  For  the  great  nations  an 
endless  strife,  generation  after  generation  of 
mankind  locked  in  deadly  and  bloody  struggles. 
17 


THE   NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

And  no  end  to  it,  no  hope,  no  dream  of  an  end 
to  it !  For  war  will  be  not  merely  a  thing  which 
must  happen :  it  will  be  a  thing  which  ought  to 
happen.  It  will  not  only  be  a  necessity:  it 
will  also  be  an  ideal,  and  he  who  prays,  "Give 
peace  in  our  time,  0  Lord!"  will  be  sinning 
against  his  country  and  his  own  soul. 

Whereupon  that  discredited  creature,  the 
Angel  of  Peace,  will  spread  her  wings,  soar 
to  the  heavens  to  report  the  failure  of  her 
mission,  and  leave  the  earth  to  enjoy  forever 
the  blessings  of  war. 


18 


n 

GREAT  BRITAIN'S  BLUNDER 


GREAT   BRITAIN'S   BLUNDER 

A  MAN  generally  knows  whether  he  is  a 
knave  or  not,  but  generally  does  not 
know  whether  or  not  he  is  a  fool.  Hence  he 
would  sooner  be  called  knave  than  fool.  If 
he  is  a  knave,  he  cannot  much  resent  the  accu- 
sation; if  his  conscience  is  clear,  he  dismisses 
it  with  a  smile.  But  to  taunt  him  with  being  a 
fool  makes  him  uneasy  and  sets  him  on  self- 
examination. 

It  is  the  same  with  nations,  and  hence  it 
comforts  a  nation  to  find  its  enemies  imputing 
to  it,  not  folly  or  blindness  but  a  long-headed 
cunning,  even  though  the  cunning  ascribed  to 
it  be  untrammeled  by  scruples  to  a  degree 
which  it  would  not  itself  be  willing  for  a  mo- 
ment to  admit.  England  had  sooner  be  called 
perfidious  than  a  blockhead. 
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THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

Her  enemies,  as  a  rule,  fall  in  with  her  pref- 
erence, imputing  to  her  a  consistent,  unscrupu- 
lous, and  supremely  able  policy  of  self-interest 
which  seems  to  Englishmen  themselves  as  much 
above  their  intellectual  capacity  as  it  is  below 
their  most  modest  conception  of  their  own 
morals. 

But  England  is  not  quite  the  perfect  villain. 
She  has  had  her  lapses;  she  has  missed  her 
chance  now  and  then.  She  has  not  always  hit 
her  man  on  the  head  when  he  was  least  able 
to  hit  back;  she  has  not  always  stabbed  him 
in  the  back  when  he  was  fighting  somebody 
else  in  front — not  always,  however  much,  of 
course,  she  may,  in  certain  eyes,  under  various 
fine  pretexts  about  treaties  and  neutral  rights, 
be  doing  it  now. 

One  sore  lapse  of  this  kind  that  notable  ex- 
ponent of  German  policy  and  principles, 
General  von  Bernhardi,  is  good  enough  to 
point  out  to  his  countrymen  and  to  us  in  his 
book  " Germany  and  the  Next  War."  He  is 
much  struck  with  it ;  he  refers  to  it  more  than 
once.  Here  are  a  couple  of  passages — I 
22 


GREAT    BRITAIN'S    BLUNDER 

quote  from  the  English  translation  of  the 
book: 

"Since  England  committed  the  unpardon- 
able blunder,  from  her  point  of  view,  of  not 
supporting  the  Southern  States  in  the  Ameri- 
can War  of  Secession,  a  rival  to  England's 
world-wide  Empire  has  appeared  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic  in  the  form  of  the  United 
States  of  North  America,  which  are  a  grave 
menace  to  England's  fortunes." 

Again:  "This  policy  [i.  e.,  the  German  pol- 
icy of  not  effecting  "a  final  settling  of  accounts 
with  France"  at  a  favorable  moment]  some- 
what resembles  the  supineness  for  which  Eng- 
land has  herself  to  blame,  when  she  refused 
her  assistance  to  the  Southern  States  in  the 
American  War  of  Secession,  and  thus  allowed 
a  Power  to  arise,  in  the  form  of  the  United 
States  of  North  America,  which  already,  al- 
though barely  fifty  years  have  elapsed,  threat- 
ens England's  own  position  as  a  World 
Power." 

I  am  not  old  enough — just  not  old  enough — 
to  remember  the  War  of  Secession,  but  I  have 
23 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

talked  with  many  who  remember  those  days 
well,  and  we  have  all  read  many  books  about 
that  troubled  and  momentous  time.  Everybody 
knows  that  there  was  a  great  deal  of  sympathy 
for  the  South  in  England,  especially  among 
the  upper  classes,  even  more  powerful  polit- 
ically then  than  now.  Everybody  knows  that 
war  nearly  came  about  by  reason  of  it,  but  was 
avoided — happily  and  mercifully  avoided,  as 
we  Englishmen  have  been  in  the  habit  of  say- 
ing, till  General  von  Bernhardi  came  along  to 
teach  us  to  say  "  unhappily  and  stupidly 
evaded"!  Everybody  knows  that  in  the  end 
the  preponderance  of  opinion  in  England  im- 
posed, not  intervention  on  the  Northern  side 
but  a  neutrality  which  left  the  sad  but  splendid 
conflict  to  be  fought  out  without  foreign  inter- 
ference— to  be  fought  out  by  men  on  both  sides 
who  believed  that  they  fought  in  a  righteous 
cause,  for  which  they  were  ready  and  bounden, 
not  only  to  lay  down  their  own  lives  but  to  take 
the  lives  of  their  fellow-countrymen — aye,  of 
their  own  brethren,  if  need  be.  History  lays 
her  wreath  of  laurel  on  the  graves  of  the  heroes 
24 


GREAT    BRITAIN'S    BLUNDER 

of  the  North  and  of  the  South  alike.  And  the 
Great  Republic  lives. 

That  was  what  Great  Britain  did.  What 
does  General  von  Bernhardi,  with  his  Prussian 
politico-military  philosophy  and  principles,  say 
that  she  ought  to  have  done — what  only  her 
supineness  and  unpardonable  blundering  pre- 
vented her  from  doing?  For  her  there  should 
have  been  no  nonsense  about  which  side  was 
right,  no  nonsense  about  generous  and  disin- 
terested sympathy  with  the  South 's  strong 
Constitutional  case  and  splendid  pluck  on  the 
one  side,  or  with  the  sentiment  of  national 
unity,  the  cause  of  the  slaves,  or  the  dogged 
and  persevering  valor  which  drew  hearts  to 
the  other  side.  All  these  were  simply  irrele- 
vant. Great  Britain — if  she  would  not  be  su- 
pine and  stupid — had  simply  to  ask,  "What 
will  pay  me  best?'*  And  simply  to  answer, 
"Helping  the  South."  Why?  "Because  by 
helping  the  South  I  shall  in  the  long  run  cripple 
both  South  and  North.  By  helping  one  I  shall 
hurt  both.'f 

How  were  we  to  achieve  that  master-stroke 
25 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

of  policy  against  a  friendly  and  kindred  peo- 
ple? Very  simply.  We  were  to  provide  the 
Federal  States  (the  United  States  would  no 
longer  have  existed!)  with  a  neighbor — an 
armed  and  angry  neighbor.  The  Confederate 
States  a  nation,  perpetually  a  rival,  always  po- 
tentially a  foe!  Hatred  and  rivalry  between 
themselves  were  to  keep  Americans  busy,  their 
hands  filled  with  that,  while  the  astute  Brit- 
isher filled  his  pockets  with  the  trade  that  his 
cousins  had  not  time  to  attend  to! 

Why  were  we  so  stupid?  Why  did  we  make 
the  unpardonable  blunder  of  not  adopting  a 
policy,  so  astute,  so  profitable,  so  thoroughly 
worthy  of  a  great  nation,  claiming  to  be  in  the 
van  of  civilization  and  culture?  Because  this 
policy  appears  to  be  that  which  recommends 
itself,  in  the  light  of  history,  to  what  is  the 
greatest  and  finest  civilization  of  all — the  pres- 
ent German  variety. 

Well,  we  must  concede  this  much  to  General 
von  Bernhardi  and  his  theory  of  our  unpardon- 
able blunder :  we  did  not  adopt  the  policy  be- 
cause, among  other  reasons,  it  never  entered 
26 


GREAT    BRITAIN'S    BLUNDER 

our  heads.  There  may  have  been  a  few 
Machiavellis  (or  Bernhardis)  about,  but  our 
people  as  a  whole  were  guided  by  their  sym- 
pathies, by  their  prejudices  if  you  will;  the 
question  of  self-interest  was  not  present  to 
their  minds. 

But  if  it  had  been!  I  think  I  know  what 
the  attitude  of  the  British  people  would  have 
been  toward  such  a  policy;  but  I  have  no  de- 
sire to  indulge  in  strong  language  about  the 
moral  and  political  principles  which  inspire  the 
German  (or  perhaps  I  should  say  Prussian) 
statecraft  of  which  the  General  is  so  distin- 
guished and  resolute  a  champion.  The  impor- 
tant thing  is  that  the  free  peoples  of  the  world 
— the  peoples  themselves,  but  not  merely  their 
politicians  and  their  professors — should  under- 
stand what  the  canons  of  this  statecraft  are. 
When  once  the  free  peoples  understand  we  are 
content  to  abide  their  verdict. 

For  though  I  have  chosen — and  of  course 
purposely  chosen — an  example  of  this  state- 
craft which  has  a  special  interest  for  Ameri- 
cans as  well  as  for  ourselves,  the  question  itself 
27 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

is  a  much  wider  one,  and  has  an  actual,  not 
merely  an  historical,  interest  for  all  the  na- 
tions, as  well  as  for  the  combatants  in  the  pres- 
ent great  struggle.  For  this  struggle,  immense 
and  terrible  as  it  is,  is  but  a  step,  an  incident, 
in  the  world-policy  which  General  von  Bern- 
hardi  expounds.  If  it  ends  as  he  would  have 
it  end,  on  his  own  principles  his  cry  must  still 
be  "Onward!" 

The  world  is  being  asked  to-day  to  choose 
between  two  conceptions  of  national  policy  and 
duty.  There  has  been  no  more  momentous 
question  put  to  it  since  history  began.  And 
it  must  be  answered.  Quo  Vadis?  The  ques- 
tion is  put  to  the  civilized  world. 

Let  us  try  to  sketch,  briefly  and  roughly, 
what  has  been  among  civilized  peoples  the  ideal 
of  national  policy  in  international  affairs  in 
recent  times.  It  is  with  ideals  that  we  are 
dealing.  No  doubt  all  nations  have  occasion- 
ally sinned  against  the  light,  more  or  less  pur- 
posely, more  or  less  consciously,  always  (I 
think)  in  face  of  a  strong  protest  from  a  strong 
minority  of  their  own  citizens,  and  generally 


GREAT    BRITAIN'S    BLUNDER 

with  a  swift  return  to  a  worthier  mind.  What 
has  been  this  ideal  T 

The  State  is  a  trustee  for  its  citizens.  It  is 
bound  to  assert,  maintain,  and  promote  their 
rights  and  their  interests.  Its  first  duty  is  to 
them;  it  must  not,  without  their  express  sanc- 
tion, practice  charity  or  benevolence  to  other 
nations  at  their  expense.  It  is  to  guard  also 
their  honor  and  see  that  their  voice  in  the 
counsels  of  the  world  receives  the  respect  which 
is  its  due.  But  it  is  to  exercise  these  functions 
with  a  due  regard  to  the  rights  and  legitimate 
interests  of  other  nations.  It  is  to  observe,  not 
only  international  law  but  international  morals 
— and  even  international  manners.  It  is  to 
respect  the  national  life  and  the  freedom  of 
its  neighbors.  Though  vigilant  in  its  own 
cause,  it  is  yet  to  be  a  good  member  of  the 
community  of  nations. 

Something  like  this,  perhaps,  is  what  an  av- 
erage citizen  of  a  free  and  civilized  country 
expects  of  his  Government  in  dealing  with 
other  civilized  countries.  The  case  of  bar- 
barous countries,  with  their  peculiar  (and  very 
29 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

difficult)  moral  problems,  need  not  here  detain 
us.  As  between  civilized  nations  something 
like  this  is,  if  not  a  realized  standard,  at  least 
a  possible  and  perhaps  not  distant  ideal,  some- 
thing at  which  we  have  been  aiming  and  toward 
which  we  conceived  ourselves  to  be  progress- 
ing— in  spite  of  occasional  backslidings,  of 
which  we  have  been  very  acutely  conscious  in 
the  case  of  our  neighbors,  and  perhaps  some- 
times a  little  suspicious  even  as  regards  our 
own  proceedings. 

But  how  stands  Germany  toward  this  ideal 
— modern  Germany,  the  German  Empire  un- 
der Prussian  hegemony  and  Prussian  inspira- 
tion? She  gives  it  the  go-by  altogether.  She 
gives  the  go-by  to  the  rights  of  her  neighbors. 
Persuaded  apparently  by  her  philosophers  and 
historians  that  she  possesses  a  particular 
brand  of  "culture"  which  is  far  superior  to 
any  other  in  the  world,  she  sees  her  duty  toward 
the  community  of  nations  as  consisting  solely 
in  compelling  as  many  of  them  as  she  can  to 
become,  willy-nilly,  partakers  of  her  culture — 
in  "stamping  [as  General  von  Bernhardi  says] 
30 


GREAT    BRITAIN'S    BLUNDER 

a  great  part  of  humanity  with  the  impress  of 
the  German  spirit."  In  the  pursuit  of  this 
end  war  is,  we  are  told,  not  only  a  necessity 
but  a  duty,  a  moral  obligation  and  a  condition 
of  national  well-being.  "The  inevitableness, 
the  idealism,  and  the  blessing  of  war,  as  an  in- 
dispensable and  stimulating  law  of  develop- 
ment, must  be  repeatedly  emphasized."  Might 
is  the  supreme  right,  victory  the  supreme  and 
sufficient  justification.  German  culture  must 
spread.  It  can  spread  only  through  German 
power.  And  German  power  depends  "on  two 
points:  firstly,  how  many  millions  of  men  in 
the  world  speak  German;  secondly,  how  many 
of  them  are  politically  members  of  the  German 
Empire."  And  there  are  not  nearly  enough 
at  present — in  General  von  Bernhardi's 
opinion. 

Nothing  limits  the  right  to  bring  about  this 
German  ideal.  It  is  above  all  other  rights; 
it  is  a  Super-Right.  No  plea  of  nationality, 
of  freedom,  of  long  prescription,  of  the  desire 
of  the  governed,  of  international  law,  or  of 
express  treaty  can  bind  or  overrule  it.  On 
31 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

the  contrary,  it  overrules  them  all.  Solus 
populi,  suprema  lex.  No  doubt.  But  the  sal- 
vation of  the  German  people  seems  quite  in- 
compatible with  the  permanent  or  secure  salva- 
tion of  anybody  else! 

Well,  you  may  call  this  new  German  ideal 
what  you  please.  You  may  call  it  grandiose 
and  dazzling.  You  may  call  it  immoral  and 
unscrupulous.  If  you  are  at  all  acquainted 
with  "cultures,"  ancient  and  modern,  which 
are  not  conceived  on  the  lines  of  this  new 
German  "culture,"  you  may  call  it  impu- 
dent and  absurd.  But  there  is  one  thing 
you  must  call  this  ideal,  and  that  is — dan- 
gerous. 

Such  part  of  the  globe  as  it  cannot  make  a 
German  province  it  inevitably  makes  an  armed 
camp. 

If  proof  of  this  be  needed — though,  indeed, 
the  proof  of  it  starts  to  the  eyes  of  any  nation 
that  does  not  wish  to  become  a  German  prov- 
ince if  it  can  help  it — let  us  go  back  to  Eng- 
land's "unpardonable  blunder,"  and  try  to  see 
what  would  have  happened  if  she  had  not  com- 
32 


GREAT    BRITAIN'S    BLUNDER 

mitted  it — if,  on  the  contrary,  she  had  sup- 
ported the  Southern  States  against  the  North. 
Of  course  we  must  assume — though  it  is  a  con- 
siderable assumption — that  her  intervention 
would  have  been  successful,  that  with  her  help 
the  Southern  States  would  have  succeeded  in 
establishing  and  maintaining  their  independ- 
ence. As  a  result,  where  there  are  now  the 
United  States  of  America,  there  would  be  two 
independent  nations — and  of  course,  on  Ger- 
man principles,  armed  nations,  each  trying  to 
be  stronger  than  the  other,  to  get  the  better  of 
the  other,  perhaps  to  impose  (more  Ger- 
manico)  their  "culture"  on  the  other.  Herein, 
says  General  von  Bernhardi,  would  lie  the  tri- 
umph of  British  policy.  The  Northern  nation 
and  the  Southern  nation,  as  busy  with  one 
another  as  were  the  proverbial  Kilkenny  cats, 
would  have  no  surplus  time  or  energy  to  spend 
in  interfering  with  the  designs  or  the  prosper- 
ity of  Great  Britain.  The  North  might  hate, 
but  she  would  be  impotent.  The  South  might 
forget  her  gratitude  (the  General  cannot  af- 
ford, on  his  principles,  to  rely  on  national  grat- 
33 


THE   NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

itude),  but  she  would  have  her  hands  full  all 
the  same. 

But  still,  is  the  General  quite  so  right  as 
he  thinks?  Could  England  be  sure  of  being 
able  to  stand  by  smiling— and  raking  in  the 
dollars?  If  gratitude  can  be  forgotten,  so  can 
an  old  quarrel — when  it  pays  to  forget  it. 
Would  the  British  Government  be  safe  in  ig- 
noring the  chance  that  some  day  the  North 
would  say  to  the  South:  "Our  profit  doesn't 
lie  in  keeping  up  this  old  quarrel  or  in  worry- 
ing one  another.  Let  us  do  a  deal.  You  shall 
be  free  to  'expand'  as  much  as  you  like  south- 
ward— in  Mexico,  in  Central  America,  where 
you  will,  down  there.  In  return  let  us  be  free 
to  expand  northward.  We  shall  both  find  that 
a  much  better  game  than  cutting  one  another's 
throats  for  England's  profit"? 

If  England  did  sufficient  justice  to  America 's 
common  sense  to  conceive  of  such  an  arrange- 
ment as  even  possible,  what  must  be  her  im- 
perative safeguard  against  the  possibility? 
There  is  only  one  answer :  an  armed  Canada — 
Canada  armed  to  the  teeth  along  her  immense 
34 


GREAT    BRITAIN'S    BLUNDER 

frontier,  armed  on  the  Great  Lakes,  and,  pend- 
ing at  least  a  fuller  growth  of  her  strength, 
demanding  and  engrossing  no  small  part  of 
the  resources  of  the  Mother  Country  for  her 
defense. 

Whether  this  development  would  be  better 
for  England  than  the  present  state  of  affairs 
I  will  not  discuss.  I  think  I  hardly  need.  Any- 
how, it  is  enough  for  my  purpose  to  point  out 
by  this  example  whither  Bernhardian  princi- 
ples and  policy  tend. 

There  are  two  friendly  peoples  now  on  the 
continent  of  North  America.  If  England  had 
not  committed  her  "unpardonable  blunder," 
there  would  have  been  three  armed  camps. 

So  the  new  German  ideal  works  out  in  this 
example.  And  it  would  work  out  in  the  same 
way  in  others.  The  nation  that  will  not  be  a 
German  province  must  be  an  armed  camp. 

When  the  free  nations  realize  this  they  will 
make  their  choice  between  the  two  ideals  of 
national  policy  in  international  affairs  which 
are  to-day  presented  for  their  consideration. 


88 


m 

PAPER   BULWARKS 


ni 

PAPER  BULWARKS 

SURELY  no  statesman  holding  high  and  re- 
sponsible place  ever  let  the  cat  out  of  the 
bag  so   sompletely   as   the  German  Imperial 
Chancellor  in  his  now  world-famous  phrase 
about  the  "scrap  of  paper"! 

Of  course  the  appearance  of  the  animal 
caused  no  surprise  in  Germany — no  surprise, 
at  least,  to  the  enthusiastic  disciples  of 
Treitschke  and  Bernhardi,  who  number,  as  Pro- 
fessor Cramb  tells  us,  their  tens  of  thousands 
in  Germany.  They  knew  the  color  of  the  ani- 
mal quite  well  beforehand ;  they  knew  what  its 
claws  were  like — to  say  nothing  of  its  whiskers, 
which  must  surely  be  pictured  with  a  truly 
Imperial  upward  twist !  Cats  of  the  same  color 
stalk  through  the  writings  of  their  school  of 
39 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

thought.  "Neutrality  is  a  paper  bulwark," 
says  Bernhardi.  Treaties  hold  good  rebus  sic 
stantibus — which,  if  you  drag  it  from  what  Gib- 
bon calls  "the  decent  obscurity  of  a  learned 
language,"  means  "while  perfectly  conven- 
ient." No,  the  color  of  the  Chancellor's  cat  was 
no  surprise  to  them.  They  were  quite  familiar 
with  the  breed. 

And  they  are  surprised — genuinely  sur- 
prised, I  believe,  though  at  first  sight  it  seems 
difficult  to  believe — that  anybody  else  should 
feel  differently.  They  are  so  imbued  with  the 
virtue  of  their  own  doctrine — with  its  '  *  religion 
of  valor"  and  its  "return  to  Odin,"  and  so 
forth — that  they  are  unable  to  understand  how 
it  can  be  questioned  save  by  fools,  hypocrites, 
or  cowards.  They  do  not  think  the  British 
fools;  they  do  think  them  hypocrites;  they  do 
think  them  cowards — or  did.  And  thus  in  their 
eyes  the  position  we  profess  as  to  Belgian  neu- 
trality is  abundantly  explained. 

But  there  are  signs  that  they  are  beginning 
to  see  that  the  color  and  claws  of  the  Chan- 
cellor's cat  are  rather  alarming  to  other  peo- 
40 


PAPER    BULWARKS 

pie — rather  alarming,  or  at  least  rather  star- 
tling, to  the  free  peoples,  large  and  small; 
rather  questionable  to  men  and  women  who 
have  not  returned  to  Odin,  but  still  take  their 
standards  from  another  source  of  religious  and 
ethical  inspiration.  So  there  is  an  attempt  to 
put  rather  a  different  color  on  the  cat,  perhaps 
to  thrust  it  back  into  the  bag — half-way  back, 
anyhow,  so  that  claws  and  whiskers  may  be 
hidden,  even  if  the  color  remains  obstinately 
apparent.  Accordingly,  arguments  of  other 
than  the  plain  Treitschke-Bernhardi  order  are 
adduced  by  German  writers  and  their  apolo- 
gists. 

One  of  them  takes  the  familiar  tu  quoque 
form — the  old  "You're  another!"  of  our  child- 
ish days.  If  Germany  had  not  violated  the 
neutrality  of  Belgium,  France  and  Great 
Britain  would  have. 

As  to  this,  it  may  be  observed  first— and 
the  remark  applies  to  both  Powers — that  such 
counter-charges  are  easy  to  bring — so  easy  that 
they  carry  no  weight,  unless  evidence  in  sup- 
port of  them  is  produced.  Such  evidence  the 
41 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

German  Government  has  declared  itself  to  pos- 
sess. It  should  be  challenged  to  produce  it. 
Until  it  does  so,  the  presumption  would  seem 
to  be  that  this  retort  is  designed  for  consump- 
tion by  those,  in  Germany  itself  and  in  neutral 
countries,  whose  stomachs  find  the  undiluted 
doctrine  of  the  scrap  of  paper  rather  strong 
meat,  difficult  of  digestion  and  threatening,  per- 
haps, after-effects  of  an  unpleasant  order. 

But  with  regard  to  Great  Britain,  at  least, 
we  may  say  more  than  this.  The  charge,  if 
advanced  in  good  faith  and  sincerity,  shows 
an  astonishing  ignorance  of  the  state  of  opinion 
in  that  country.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no 
British  Government  (and,  I  may  add  in  pass- 
ing, least  of  all  a  Liberal  Government,  depend- 
ing so  largely  as  it  does  on  pacific  opinion  and 
on  the  support  of  the  friends  of  the  smaller 
nations)  would  or  could  have  taken  such  a 
step.  It  would  almost  certainly  have  been  sui- 
cidal to  the  Government  itself.  It  would  cer- 
tainly have  rent  public  opinion  in  twain  and 
fatally  impaired  the  support  which  the  nation 
at  large  now  accords  enthusiastically  to  the 
42 


PAPER    BULWARKS 

policy  of  his  Majesty's  Government.  It  would, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  greater  part  of  the  nation — 
I  believe  in  the  eyes  of  practically  the  whole 
nation — have  stamped  on  our  friendship  with 
France  a  shameful  and  fatal  stain.  We  could 
not  have  fought  the  war  in  good  heart  after  it. 

Let  us  pass  to  another  argument  employed 
by  the  apologists,  and  deserving  of  notice  for 
its  ingenuity  at  least.  The  "scrap  of  paper" 
—or,  in  other  and  more  formal  language,  the 
Quintuple  Treaty  of  London  (April  19,  1839) 
between  Great  Britain,  Austria,  France,  Rus- 
sia, and  Prussia  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Netherlands  on  the  other — was  not,  it  is  said, 
in  its  true  nature  and  essence  a  Treaty  with 
Belgium,  but  a  Treaty  about  Belgium.  The 
only  rights  or  obligations  created  by  it  were 
mutual  rights  and  obligations  between  the  con- 
tracting parties.  These  came  to  an  end,  ipso 
facto,  with  the  existence  of  a  state  of  war 
between  the  contracting  parties.  And  Belgium 
was  left  quite  out  in  the  cold! 

This  somewhat  technical  argument  takes  us 
a  long  way  from  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  the 
43 


THE   NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

"scrap-of -paper"  doctrine.  But  it  is  worth  a 
moment's  examination. 

What  does  Article  VII  of  the  Quintuple 
Treaty  say?  "Belgium  shall  form  a  State 
independent  and  perpetually  neutral.  It  is  un- 
der obligation  to  observe  neutrality  toward  all 
other  States." 

Now  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Belgium  was 
in  form  a  signatory  to  the  Treaty  with  the  five 
Powers.  But  more  than  this :  in  substance  also 
she  was  plainly  a  party,  and  for  the  reason 
that  the  Treaty  not  only  grants  her  a  right — 
the  right  of  immunity  from  attack,  but  im- 
poses on  her  an  obligation — the  obligation  not 
to  attack  others.  If  she  observes  the  obliga- 
tion, she  is  entitled  to  rely  on  the  right.  A 
promise  is  given  to  her  on  a  consideration. 
She  has  conformed  to  her  obligation;  she  has 
carried  out  the  condition.  With  what  face  is 
she  now  to  be  told  that  the  right  is  illusory 
because  she  was  not  a  formal  party  to  the 
Treaty? 

Moreover,  against  what  contingency  was  the 
Treaty  directed?  In  what  case  was  its  opera- 
44 


PAPER    BULWARKS 

tion  contemplated  t  Precisely  in  the  case  which 
arose  in  1870  and  which  has  now  arisen  again 
in  1914 — the  case  of  war  between  two  or  more 
of  the  contracting  parties.  It  is  a  pretty  argu- 
ment which  tells  us  that  a  Treaty  is  abrogated 
by  the  existence  of  the  precise  state  of  affairs 
which  it  was  intended  to  meet  and  under  which 
alone  it  could  have  any  virtue  or  effect  I 
Whatever  apologists  in  a  tight  place  may  be 
forced  to  do,  statesmen  do  not  stultify  them- 
selves in  that  fashion. 

Finally,  if  Germany  either  would  or  could 
have  relied  on  any  such  self-destructive  plea 
as  this,  she  has  a  witness  against  her,  whom 
she  herself  cannot  refuse  to  hear,  whom  the 
rest  of  the  world  was  accustomed  to  hear  with 
a  deference  not  unmingied  with  apprehension. 
That  witness  is  the  greatest  of  Dr.  von  Beth- 
mann-Hollweg's  predecessors. 

When  in  1870  trouble  came  about  between 
France  and  Prussia,  Great  Britain  took  a  very 
definite  line  about  the  neutrality  of  Belgium. 
She  plainly  intimated  that,  in  the  case  of  one 
belligerent  respecting,  while  the  other  violated, 
45 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

that  neutrality,  the  United  Kingdom  would 
take  part  with  the  belligerent  respecting  the 
neutrality  against  the  other.  And  treaties  in 
this  sense  were  made  with  France  and  with 
Prussia — in  which  latter,  by  the  way,  the  King 
of  Prussia  expressed  himself  as  being  desirous 
of  "recording  by  a  solemn  act  his  fixed  deter- 
mination to  maintain  the  independence  and 
neutrality  of  Belgium  as  provided  in  Article 
VII  of  the  Treaty  signed  in  London  on  the 
19th  April,  1839"— our  old  friend  the  "scrap 
of  paper." 

But  what  is  important  for  our  point  is  that 
Prince  Bismarck,  acting  for  his  Sovereign,  not 
only  gave  assurances  to  and  made  a  treaty 
with  Great  Britain.  He  gave  assurances  to 
Belgium  also.  And  the  terms  of  the  assurance 
are  worth  setting  out  here : — 

BERLIN, 
te  22  Juillet,  1870. 
M.  LE  MlSTISTRE, — 

Confirmant    mes    assurances    verbales, 
j'ai  Phonneur  de  vous  donner  par  ecrit 
la  declaration,  surabondante  en  presence 
46 


PAPER    BULWARKS 

des  Traites  en  vigueur,  que  la  Confedera- 
tion du  Nord  et  ses  allies  respecteront  la 
neutralite  de  la  Belgique,  bien  entendu 
qu'elle  sera  respectee  par  1'autre  partie 
belligerante. 

Agreez,  etc., 

VON  BISMABCK. 
BABON  NOTHOMB. 

Which  being  translated  runs:  "Confirming 
my  verbal  assurance,  I  have  the  honor  to  give 
a  declaration  in  writing — superfluous  having 
regard  to  the  Treaties  in  existence — that  the 
Confederation  of  the  North  and  its  allies  will 
respect  the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  it  being  well 
understood  that  that  neutrality  will  be  re- 
spected by  the  other  belligerent  Power." 

And  who  was  this  Baron  Nothomb,  to  whom 
this  assurance  is  given!  Not  the  representa- 
tive of  any  of  the  Powers  signing  the  Treaty, 
but  the  Belgian  Minister  in  Berlin. 

So  that  our  witness,  Prince  Bismarck  him- 
self, plainly  recognizes  two  things: — 

1.  The  validity  of  the  Treaty  of  1839. 

2.  The  fact  that  not  only  the  signatory  Pow- 

47 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

ers  but  also  Belgium  has  a  right  to  ask  and 
receive  assurances  that  the  Treaty  will  be  re- 
spected, that  her  right  will  be  protected  if  her 
obligation  be  observed. 

What  was  Prince  Bismarck's  view  in  1870 
is  Great  Britain's  view  in  1914.  Perhaps  that 
is  enough  to  say  about  it. 

But  since  we  have  been  talking  about  1870 
it  may  be  of  interest  to  set  out  another  docu- 
ment dating  from  the  same  time.  It  is  not 
long,  and  recent  events  give  it  interest.  We 
have  seen  what  the  German  Imperial  Chan- 
cellor thinks  of  the  Treaty ;  we  have  seen  what 
his  great  predecessor  thought  of  it;  let  us  see 
how  the  Belgians  themselves  looked  at  it  in 
that  same  year  1870. 

Here  is  the  copy  of  an  address  from  the 
Mayor  and  Communal  Council  of  the  City  of 
Brussels  to  Queen  Victoria,  dated  the  30th 
August,  1870.  It  relates  to  Great  Britain's  in- 
timation— already  referred  to — that  if  one  bel- 
ligerent respected,  while  the  other  violated, 
Belgium's  neutrality,  she  would  take  part  with 
the  former  against  the  latter: — 
48 


PAPER    BULWARKS 

MAYOR  OF  BRUSSELS  TO  QUEEN 
VICTORIA 

30rn  AUGUST,  1870 
[Translation.] 

YOUB  MAJESTY, — 

The  great  and  noble  people  over  whose 
destinies  you  preside  has  just  given  a  fur- 
ther proof  of  its  benevolent  sentiments 
toward  our  country. 

In  the  midst  of  the  grave  events  which 
shake  the  foundations  of  ancient  Europe 
the  Government  of  Your  Majesty,  con- 
scious of  the  obligations  contracted  by  the 
Signatories  to  the  Treaty  of  1839,  has 
taken  the  initiative  in  approaching  the 
Powers  which  are  parties  to  that  Treaty, 
with  a  view  to  obtaining  a  new  and  effica- 
cious confirmation  of  the  neutrality  of  Bel- 
gium. 

The  voice  of  the  English  nation  has  been 
heard  above  the  din  of  arms:  it  has  as- 
serted the  principles  of  justice  and  right. 

Next  to  the  unalterable  attachment  of 
the  Belgian  people  to  their  independence, 
the  liveliest  sentiment  which  fills  their 
49 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

hearts  is  that  of  an  imperishable  grati- 
tude. 

We  think  that  Your  Majesty  anxj  the 
people  of  Great  Britain  will  value  the  evi- 
dence of  their  gratitude  now  offered  in  the 
name  of  a  nation,  free  and  prosperous, 
which  has  cultivated  with  wisdom  and 
moderation  for  nearly  half  a  century  insti- 
tutions similar  to  those  of  the  United 
Kingdom. 

The  Municipal  Council  of  the  Capital  ex- 
press the  unanimous  sentiments  of  the 
population  in  assuring  Your  Majesty  of  its 
profound  and  respectful  gratitude. 

Such  is  the  light  in  which  the  people  of  Bel- 
gium looked  at  the  " scrap  of  paper."  And 
if  the  terms  in  which  the  Mayor  of  Brussels 
refers  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain  are  so 
handsome  that  an  Englishman  blushes  to  drag 
them  from  the  archives  of  the  past  and  repeat 
them  here — well,  it  can  only  be  said  that  it 
is  easy  to  suppose  circumstances  under  which 
he  would  have  had  to  blush  over  them  much 
more  severely,  and  under  which  the  Mayor  of 
Brussels  could  not  have  used  to  King  George 
50 


PAPER    BULWARKS 

the  words  which  his  predecessor  addressed  to 
Queen  Victoria.  He  must  have  used  words 
extremely  different — and  better,  perhaps,  left 
to  the  imagination. 

After  all,  it  is  pleasant  to  think  that  the  King 
and  people  of  Great  Britain  could  still  look 
that  old  Mayor  of  Brussels  in  the  face.  As  in 
1870,  so  now  they  are  giving  a  new  and,  please 
God,  an  efficacious  confirmation  of  the  neutral- 
ity of  Belgium — so  that  some  day,  before  long 
perhaps,  the  present  Mayor  of  Brussels  may 
endorse  some  of  the  things  his  predecessor 
said.  And  praise  from  the  gallant  M.  Max 
would  be  praise  indeed  I 


51 


IV 

EMPIRE— AND   LIBERTY? 


IV 

EMPIRE— AND   LIBERTY? 

rriHERE  are  many  things  which  General 
JL  von  Bernhardi,  whose  book  is  by  now 
familiar  to  most  of  us  by  repute  at  least,  is 
willing  to  promise  the  German  people  if  only 
they  will  fall  down  and  worship  the  ideal  of 
national  life  and  policy  which  he  sets  before 
them.  It  is  true  that  the  things  belong  for 
the  moment  to  other  people;  but  that  can  soon 
be  put  right.  The  fruit — French  plums  or 
British  peaches — is  ripe ;  it  needs  only  a  strong 
and  resolute  hand  to  pluck  it. 

But  among  all  his  promises  there  is  one  omis- 
sion. I  do  not  know  whether  or  how  far  it 
may  seem  a  remarkable  omission  in  German 
eyes;  to  an  Englishman  it  certainly  appears 
so,  and,  as  I  should  suppose,  would  so  appear 
55 


THE   NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

to  a  Frenchman  or  an  American.  Among  all 
the  rewards  of  victory  which  he  dangles  be- 
fore the  eyes  of  the  conquering  Germans,  the 
irresistible  race  which  is  to  have  so  much  to 
say  about  other  people's  affairs,  we  look  in 
vain  for  any  promise  that  they  are  to  have 
what  an  American,  a  Frenchman,  or  an  Eng- 
lishman would  consider  an  adequate  control  of 
their  own! 

On  the  contrary,  General  von  Bernhardi  dis- 
courages any  such  idea — and  that  in  round 
terms.  ''No  people,"  he  remarks  bluntly,  "is 
so  little  qualified  as  the  German  to  direct  its 
own  destinies,  whether  in  a  parliamentarian  or 
in  a  republican  Constitution;  to  no  people  is 
the  customary  liberal  pattern  so  inappropriate 
as  to  us.  A  glance  at  the  Reichstag  will  show 
how  completely  this  conviction,  which  is  forced 
on  us  by  a  study  of  German  history,  holds 
good  to-day." 

No  people  so  little  qualified  to  direct  its  own 

destinies!      An    extreme    saying!      Not    even 

those  haughty  Servians?    Not  the  Turks?    Not 

the  Albanians,  who  so  failed  to  appreciate  a 

56 


EMPIRE—AND   LIBERTY? 

German  prince?  If  what  the  General  says  be 
true,  it  would  suggest  to  an  Englishman — and 
not  less  to  a  citizen  of  other  countries  whose 
peoples  do  "direct  their  own  destinies" — that 
the  German  "culture"  had  broken  down  some- 
where. Because  to  such  a  citizen — even  as  to 
an  Athenian  of  old — a  "culture"  that  leaves 
the  citizens  unfit  for  and  incapable  of  self-gov- 
ernment fails  in  the  first  and  most  vital  func- 
tion of  a  national  culture. 

No  doubts  on  this  score  afflict  the  General. 
He  goes  on  to  point  out,  quite  contentedly,  that 
"the  German  people  has  always  been  incapable 
of  great  acts  for  the  common  interest  except 
under  the  irresistible  pressure  of  external  con- 
ditions, as  in  the  rising  of  1813,  or  under  the 
leadership  of  powerful  personalities.  .  .  . " 
"We  must  take  care,  then,"  he  proceeds,  "that 
such  men  are  assured  the  possibility  of  acting 
with  a  confident  and  free  hand  to  accomplish 
great  ends  through  and  for  our  people.  With- 
in these  limits  it  is  in  harmony  with  the  Ger- 
man character  to  allow  personality  to  have  a 
free  course  for  the  fullest  development  of  all 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

individual  forces  and  capacities,  of  all  spirit- 
ual, scientific,  and  artistic  aims." 

It  sounds  very  fine.  What  does  it  come  to? 
Powerful  Personalities,  acting  with  confident 
and  free  hands,  are  to  do  the  governing — to 
direct  the  destinies — while  the  German  people, 
of  all  the  most  unfitted  for  this  task,  are  to 
develop  these  capacities  in  intellectual  pursuits 
"within  these  limits" — that  is  to  say,  subject 
to  not  interfering  with  the  confident  and  free 
hands  of  the  Powerful  Personalities.  That  is 
put  forward  as  the  ideal  for  the  nation  whose 
ideals  are  to  direct  and  govern  as  much  of  the 
world  as  possible. 

What  is  this  but  the  watchword — or  the 
catchword — of  every  "benevolent  despotism," 
of  every  "enlightened  aristocracy,"  since  his- 
tory began?  "Occupy  yourselves  with  the  arts 
and  sciences — leave  politics  to  me,"  has  been 
the  command  of  the  despot  (whether  an  indi- 
vidual or  a  caste)  through  all  the  ages.  It  is 
the  command  of  General  von  Bernhardi  and  his 
caste  to  his  countrymen  to-day.  Will  they — 
do  they — accept  it? 

58 


EMPIRE— AND   LIBERTY? 

A  citizen  of  a  free  and  self-governing  coun- 
try— in  the  full  sense  in  which  an  American, 
a  Frenchman,  or  an  Englishman  (to  name  no 
other  nationalities,  though,  happily,  there  are 
many  others  who  could  be  named) — finds  it 
hard  to  believe  that  they  do — at  all  events,  that 
they  will — accept  it  permanently,  for  good  and 
all.  "You  cannot  govern  yourselves — you  are 
the  most  hopeless  of  all  nations  at  that.  But 
we — the  Powerful  Prussian  Personalities — will 
govern  you  with  confident  and  free  hands,  and 
govern  half  the  world  for  you  into  the  bargain. 
Only  keep  your  hands  off  politics — and  we  will 
fill  them  with  the  rich  fruits  of  world  power!" 

It  is  a  splendid  bribe ;  that  cannot  be  denied 
— panem  et  circenses  with  a  vengeance! — and 
offered,  not  this  time  to  the  demoralized  mob 
of  a  decadent  capital,  as  the  Caesars  offered 
"bread  and  game"  to  the  rabble  of  Rome,  but 
to  the  whole  of  a  civilized,  cultured,  intellectual 
people — to  the  people  who,  however  incapable 
of  directing  their  own  destinies,  are  chosen  by 
the  German  god  to  control  the  destinies  of  so 
many  other  people! 

59 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

A  big  bribe,  indeed!  Nobody  can  appre- 
ciate its  magnitude  better  than  the  nations 
which  (if  all  goes  well)  are  to  have  the  privi- 
lege of  providing  the  wherewithal  to  enable 
the  General  and  his  friends  to  redeem  their 
promises. 

Can  the  General  and  his  friends  *  *  deliver  the 
goods"?  Will  the  German  people,  dazzled  as 
they  now  seem  to  be  by  the  glittering  prize 
held  before  their  eyes,  be  permanently  content 
with  the  barter  of  liberty  at  home  for  Empire 
abroad?  I  will  not  attempt  to  answer  these 
questions.  Time  must  give  the  answer — time 
and  the  stricken  field.  Let  us  assume  the  an- 
swers that  the  General  would  like.  In  the 
words  of  his  famous  alternative,  let  it  be — for 
the  sake  of  this  argument — world  power  for 
Germany,  and  not  downfall;  and  we  will  stifle 
the  mild  suggestion  that  a  via  media  was  really 
open  to  Germany  if  she  had  been  content  to 
take  it. 

On  this  hypothesis,  then,  what  is  the  look-out 
for  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  especially  for 
that  " great  part  of  humanity"  which  is  to  be 
60 


EMPIRE— AND    LIBERTY? 

"stamped  with  the  impress  of  the  German 
spirit,"  that  spirit  which,  among  its  other  mani- 
festations, manifests  a  willingness  to  accept 
Bernhardi's  bribe  on  Bernhardi's  terms? 

Well,  anyhow,  the  great  part  of  humanity, 
when  duly  stamped,  can  hardly  expect  to  be 
better  off  than  the  Germans  themselves.  What 
is  sauce  for  the  conquering  goose  (I  mean  no 
disrespect  by  recalling  the  old  proverb)  will 
certainly  be  sauce  for  the  conquered  gander. 
If  the  home  Empire  is  unfit  to  direct  its  own 
destinies,  the  outlying  dominions  will  not  be 
allowed  to  direct  theirs.  That  seems  plain 
without  much  argument — indeed,  to  suggest 
anything  else  might  well  set  the  home  Empire 
on  a  reconsideration  of  its  bargain.  What  the 
outlying  dominions — the  bases  of  the  world 
power — must  expect  is  clearly  an  export  of 
Powerful  Personalities  to  direct  their  destinies 
with  confident  and  free  hands.  Other  Powers 
send  out  Governors :  the  British  Empire  does. 
But  the  German  Empire  overseas  is  not  to  be 
like  the  British  Empire  overseas ;  for  this  lat- 
ter we  know  from  Bernhardi's  master — the 
61 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

great  Treitschke  himself — is  a  sham,  ''wholly 
a  sham,  wholly  rotten."  These  powerful  per- 
sonalities will  not  be  the  representatives  of  a 
Constitutional  Monarch,  presiding  over  but  not 
ruling  free  and  self-governing  communities. 
They  will  be  of  the  same  type  as  the  rulers  at 
home.  The  bargain  which  is  good  enough  for 
the  home  Empire  will  be  good  enough  for  the 
German  Dominions  overseas. 

They  promise  to  be  pleasant,  restful  neigh- 
bors, these  German  Dominions  overseas,  with 
their  destinies  directed  by  Powerful  Personal- 
ities trained  in  Bernhardian  ideas  and  Bern- 
hardian  views  of  the  German  " Mission." 
Their  Eight  will  be  Might,  their  Religion  will 
be  Valor,  their  Treaties — but  we  know  by  now 
all  about  that.  They  are  to  be  Little  Berlins 
— the  description  has  already  been  applied  by 
a  writer  of  authority  to  the  German  colonies 
existing  before  the  war.  They  are  to  be  repro- 
ductions of  the  Great  Berlin,  of  the  German 
Empire  at  home — the  German  Empire  of  Bern- 
hardi's  and  Treitschke 's  ideal — where  the  na- 
tion is  the  Army,  and  the  Army  is  the  nation, 
62 


EMPIRE— AND    LIBERTY? 

and  war  is  a  moral  obligation,  where  the  creed 
is  "Live  dangerously"  and  the  Beatitude 
"Blessed  are  the  war-makers,  for  they  shall  be 
called,  if  not  the  children  of  Jahve,  the  children 
of  Odin,  who  is  greater  than  Jahve."  And  it 
may  be  supposed  their  Litany  will  run,  "To 
battle,  and  murder,  and  sudden  death,  Good 
Lord,  deliver  us" — and,  a  fortiori,  "our  ene- 
mies!" 

One  closes  General  von  Bernhardi's  book 
with  a  strange  mixture  of  feelings.  Its  atti- 
tude and  its  teaching — the  whole  spirit  which 
informs  and  animates  it — seem  at  once  so  for- 
midable and  so  preposterous.  It  is  like  some 
nightmare  in  which  everything  is  turned  upside 
down,  all  values  changed,  all  standards  re- 
versed— a  sort  of  "Alice  in  Wonderland"  po- 
litical faith.  If  it  were  all  only  a  bad  dream! 
And  surely  that  is  what  we  may  hope  and  pray 
that  it  is  for  the  German  peoples  themselves, 
a  bad  dream  from  which  they  will  one  day 
awake — awake  to  repudiate  Bernhardi's  bribe 
and  Bernhardi's  bargain,  to  take  their  own 
destinies  into  their  own  hands,  and  to  assume 
63 


THE    NEW    (GERMAN)    TESTAMENT 

their  proper  and  honorable  place  in  the  com- 
munity of  nations. 

Such  an  awakening  must,  of  a  surety,  be 
forced  on  Germany  some  day — whether  from 
without  or  from  within.  The  hope  and  the 
faith  in  such  an  awakening  are  the  silver  lining 
to  the  dark  cloud  of  strife  which  broods  over 
the  world  to-day. 

But  whatever  my  feelings  may  and  must  be 
at  the  present  time  about  the  nation  to  which  he 
belongs,  I  cannot  part  from  the  General  him- 
self wholly  in  anger.  He  is,  all  said  and  done, 
a  gallant  controversialist.  His  is  the  massed 
frontal  attack;  there  are  no  subtle  attempts  to 
outflank  your  principles  or  get  round  your  ap- 
prehensions. He  goes  full  tilt  at  them — horse, 
foot,  and  artillery.  There  never  was  such  a 
man  for  saying  things  which  you  might  imagine 
that  he  would  be  content  with  thinking — never 
such  a  man  for  telling  you  exactly  what  you 
may  expect  if  he  has  his  way  with  you!  In 
virtue  of  these  characteristics  he  is  very  valu- 
able at  this  juncture  of  affairs.  Every  man 
and  woman  of  independent  mind  should  read, 
64 


EMPIRE— AND    LIBERTY? 

mark,  learn,  and  inwardly  digest  him.  The 
wider  circulation  his  book  obtains  and  the  more 
students  he  has  the  better  will  the  world  under- 
stand what  this  war  is  really  about,  and  what 
turns  on  the  issue  of  it.  Convinced  of  this,  I 
offer  him  a  humble  and  unsolicited  but  most 
sincere  advertisement 


